For those people who think that the only determining factors in a football game are offense and defense, I hope that you were able to see Saturday’s fiasco.

I’ve probably been watching football since I was about 8 years old or so and started really remembering games somewhere in junior high. But I don’t think I have ever seen, or will ever see a game again, in which penalties and special teams absolutely debilitated a team the way that they did to Illinois on Saturday.

As much as coaches talk about all three phases of the game – offense, defense and special teams – and how each will affect the outcome of the game, unless you have Devin Hester or Ray Guy, chances are that special teams will be overlooked and seen as inconsequential.

I equate it to a good offensive line or good officiating during a game: Unless they really blow a play, chances are you won’t notice it unless you’re watching for it. Unfortunately, when the third phase of the game doesn’t do its job, it sticks out even more because of the said stigma of special teams not mattering much.

Saturday was one of those days when it didn’t matter that the offense was playing relatively well and the defense was getting its stops most of the time. Inopportune penalties seemed to keep Michigan on the field when the defense would get stops – giving the Wolverines nearly 10 more minutes of possession. In addition, a lack of discipline led to even more penalties.

After Illinois’ second drive stalled, the Illini were forced to send Anthony Santella and the punting unit out. Santella got off a very respectable 44-yard punt that was negated by a foolish kick catching interference penalty by wide receiver Joe Morgan when he ran into Greg Matthews.

While Michigan didn’t capitalize on the call, it was a harbinger of things to come.

After consecutive sacks by Doug Pilcher and Dave Lindquist, Michigan was facing a fourth-and-27 deep in its own territory when on the Zoltan Mesko punt, Morgan was flagged for roughing the punter, giving the Wolverines an automatic first down.

While it stands to be argued whether or not the penalty should have been a running into the kicker penalty, which wouldn’t have given Michigan a first down, or if Morgan may have even tipped the punt, the play was Morgan’s second costly penalty of the game.

Michigan, opportunistically, turned that roughing the kicker into a touchdown drive. Chad Henne hit Adrian Arrington in the southwest corner of the end zone on a fade pattern that Michigan ran on consecutive plays against the Illini secondary.

While Arrington’s receiving touchdown was result of a miscue from a penalty, his passing touchdown was the result of the aforementioned special teams play.

After two personal foul penalties by defensive backs Kevin Mitchell and Vontae Davis, Illinois seemed to dodge a huge bullet after Henne overthrew Mario Manningham on what would have been a sure touchdown. Michigan was forced to punt to Kyle Hudson and, well, you know what happened next.

Illinois still had a chance after the Arrington-to-Manningham gadget play, but I don’t think there was any chance that Michigan was going to let the momentum, along with a big victory, slip away.

After last week’s loss to Iowa that was chalked with offensive inefficiency, the loss is an even harder pill to swallow with the offense rebounding fairly well this week.

The Illini defense could have been a little more disciplined in regards to penalties, but still played very well, especially in pressuring the Michigan quarterback tandem.

The game is just a very painful example of how much special teams and penalties can adversely affect the outcome of a game so much.

Even if they are the last thing that you expected to be the biggest factor in a game like this.

Daniel Johnson is a junior in Communications. He can be reached at [email protected].